Beowulf

I read The Old English epic Beowulf, which is a bilingual edition.  I have to read it for homework of the History of English Literature.  The Old English is hard to read.  It is next to impossible for me to read it, but I can sometimes find words that I can understand.  The example is 'oft'.  It is mean 'often'.  'oft' is near 'often', so I understand it.  Beowulf is interesting.  It was originally a epic sung by minstrels, so it was not written.  It was sung, so it has many rhyme.  It is written as a bilingual edition but translated word for word, so it is difficult to understand Japanese sentence.  When I read it, I adjust sentences to understand easily.  The setting of the story is laid in Denmark, and it is said that its composition is dated between the 8th and the 11th century.  There are the sentences about Cain and Abel.  They are the persons in the Bible, so I am surprised.  In the era when the people in Britain spoke the Old English, there were Christians.  Of course, I know that Jesus Christ was born in the Christian Era, but I can't image that Christ spoke the Old English.  It is interesting!

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